Still Not There

RSL were good. They sold their joint out on a weeknight for a competition that's only just registered on the lay MLS fan's radar. They got a fantastic result away in Mexico. They went toe to toe with an opponent of superior quality over two legs. And that quality told in one moment that undid RSL. A late flurry couldn't find them the solitary goal they needed to take the next step on the world stage.

MLS is still not there.

A snapshot of where MLS is going? Olave is the type of player the league is increasingly moving towards. He was tremendous. Winning defensive battles, a handful on set pieces, inspired by the big stage. As good as he was, Arturo Alvarez, poster-child of the theoretically talented but underachieving domestic product, trotting on as a sub to provide an offensive spark, was miserable. Tentative, ineffective, overawed by the occasion, and constantly losing possession. There comes a point when promise is no longer good enough, and the league has its fair share of dead wood rotting on its rosters. But the transition is happening, slowly but surely.